Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Busy, Busy...

Busy, busy! That's what I've been for the past couple weeks. Seems like things in the yard all come alive at once and it's a mad rush to get everything pruned, mowed, moved, planted, purchased, and mulched before the neighbors start complaining to the HOA. I'm happy to say, however, that I am DONE with yard work. Now I just have to maintain (and water), but I enjoy being outside, so it all works out.

Somewhere between my last post and this one, Lilly had a visit from her trimmer. She got praise for how great her tootsies are looking, how her weight is holding steady, and how much better she's moving these days. Gone are the bull-nosed, squared off hind toes from her past, which definitely lets us know she's using her body properly. We still have a seedy toe hole, but there's no active infection in there, so it's more of a maintenance thing at this point. I'm going to let off the creams and ointments and move on to the apple cider vinegar instead. I'll probably continue to shove cotton up into the little pocket, just because it keeps the crud out, but for now we just have to wait for it to grow out.

Waiting for the trimmer lady.

I spoke with my trimmer some more about the new EasyCare shoes and nearly passed out when she told me it would cost about $250 for a set of front shoes. The shoes themselves run about $40, and while I know there are other material costs like glue, holy cow! She said it's very time consuming and that's where the bulk of the expense is. She compared them to the cost of a set of therapeutic shoes, since they're "kind of like therapeutic shoes", but now I'm not so sure I can justify using them on Lilly. She said we can discuss my options when I get to the point where Lilly needs some kind of hoof protection.

In other news, I've been keeping track of Rylee's raw food diet expenses. I've been writing down everything I buy, how much of it I have, and what I paid for it. May's statistics are in, and I'm quite impressed! I spent just over $90 for approximately 50 pounds of meat, which made enough food for 33 days. When all the different equations have been worked out (thanks to Excel!), the results look like this:

Cost Per Bag = $1.18
Cost Per Day = $2.35
Total Cost for May = $72.54

Less than $75 to feed a 75 pound dog, fresh quality food that I prepare right there in my kitchen. I'm so glad I ventured into this whole raw food thing, that my dog is playing along, and that she isn't sending me to the poor house in the process.

She does get 1 Vitamin E capsule, 1 fish oil capsule, 4 antihistamines, and 1/4 teaspoon of probiotics each day, so there are some other costs included in there as well. Not to mention the recreational bones and fancy schmancy single ingredient treats I buy her, but she'd probably get those things anyway.

I've never had so much meat in my house at one time!

She mostly gets chicken and turkey parts (backs, thighs, necks, gizzards, liver, ground turkey), but I've been able to find some good deals on beef here and there too. I've done quite a few roasts, some ribs (although I just use the meat and she gets the bones for recreational chewing), and I bought her some higher quality ground beef, which she seems to be doing okay with. I'm still looking to branch out into some other areas, like fish, beef hearts, and venison, but I haven't been able to get my hands on any of that stuff yet.

I've got my baggie packing system down to a science and rather than being something I dread, I find it quite satisfying to chop up fresh meat, pack it away, and put it in the freezer.